Missing hiker ID'd as Atlanta woman

TACOMA, Wash. -- The Pierce County Medical Examiner's office has confirmed that a body found last week on Mt. Rainier is that of 30-year-old Michelle Trojanowski, an Atlanta woman.

Trojanowski went missing during a hiking trip over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend. The body of her companion, 37-year-old Mark Vucich, was identified last month.

According to park rangers, Trojanowski, Vucich and two others disappeared during a heavy snowstorm that hit the mountain. The remains were found after the snow started melting early last month.

Now that she's been found, Trojanowski's family at church and at home said they can finally move forward with a much-deserved memorial service.

"She was a well received, much loved member of our community," said her pastor Kris McDaniel of Trinity Anglican Mission. "We can sometimes want to saint someone until their feet levitate off the ground, but Michelle was just a good, normal, wonderful person to hang out with."

They say she was fun, but also very busy. Trojanowski balanced the demands of a full time job with a full plate of volunteer work. She built Habitat for Humanity houses, helped provide clothes and meals for the homeless, and even took a trip to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

"I mean literally everybody that was put in front of her she served, and I feel like that presence was lost in Atlanta," said her friend Allison McGill. "It was the very rich, the very poor, the socially awkward and the socially loved. She accepted everybody in front of her."

Once a year a major focus of Trojanowski's was a community health fair known as "Health Day." This year, they'll have to move forward without her. But they say they'll use events like it to promote one of the focuses of her life: service.